GFRAS GOOD PRACTICE NOTE FOR EXTENSION AND ADVISORY SERVICES
NOTE 25: Integrating Nutrition-sensitive Advisory in Extension Services
Compiled by: Dr Stefan Kachelriess-Matthess, Dr Annemarie Matthess, Stancher Anna, Ben
Asare, and Professor Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa, September 2016
Extension advisory services (EAS) support smallholders to improve the productivity and
efficiency of their farms and to take decisions on the outlook of their business. Extension
advisory services include not only government extension services, but also services
organised and funded by private companies along their supply chains – for example, a food
processor or a commodity aggregator may establish an outgrower scheme and employ its
own extension agents.
Both public and private EAS assist smallholders to improve production of one or a few lead
crops, which are either exported (e.g. cacao, coffee, spices, cotton) or consumed as staples
in local diets (e.g. rice, wheat, sorghum, potatoes). These crops generate comparatively high
profit margins and enjoy significant market demand. By supporting their production and
linking smallholders to markets, EAS contribute to increasing the incomes of rural
populations.
However, the smallholders and households addressed by EAS are not only cash poor. They
are often food insecure and suffer chronic or acute forms of malnutrition. This impacts on
the physical and cognitive growth of children, and reduces productivity and the ability of
household members to carry out agricultural work.
Lacking or highly variable income is one cause of food insecurity and malnutrition. But higher
incomes do not automatically translate into improved nutrition. Poor eating habits, lack of
knowledge about good nutrition practices, and limited access to diverse food items are other
important determinants. Even when incomes are rising, households might prioritise
expenditures that are not relevant to improving nutrition (e.g. communication, mobility).
This is why EAS need to identify and address the nutritional needs of rural households and to
mainstream nutrition-sensitive messages in their service provision. This note reviews
selected instruments that EAS can use for this purpose.
Philosophy and principles
To develop nutrition-sensitive extension messages and disseminate them effectively, EAS
should take account of the following principles:


1
Context: nutrition-sensitive messages should build on analyses of dietary patterns
and deficits of rural households. The household dietary diversity score of FAO 1 and
national food-based dietary guidelines, if available, are helpful to identify nutrition
gaps.
Adaptation to literacy levels: where smallholders’ literacy levels are low, visual tools,
interactive methods, and simple language should be used to enhance the
understanding of extension messages.
The household dietary diversity score and individual dietary diversity score provide
indications of a household’s or individual’s consumption of a range of food groups, and can be used to
understand access to food and the nutritional quality of diets.
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Balanced/equitable participation: women play a major role in channelling household
resources to food, health services, and education. However, women are subject to
the influence and decision-making authority of other family members such as male
partners and the elderly. Nutrition-sensitive extension should engage both men and
women, as well as household members across generations (youth and elderly),
fostering more harmonious intra-household communication and decision making and
more equitable power relations.
Business orientation: smallholders are entrepreneurs and invest in production based
on profit outlooks. Cost–benefit analysis should be used to enable smallholders to
make well grounded decisions on their investments in production and consumption
while taking the nutritional implications into account.
Scale: the content of nutrition-related extension messages should be relevant for a
large number of households. The methods of delivery need to be easy and low-cost,
otherwise resource constraints will limit the outreach. Keep it simple, and focus on
do-able actions.
Coordination: to enhance impact, coordination with government or donor
programmes that address nutrition, such as health systems, maternal care, and water
supply, will be necessary.
Implementation
Extension advisory services can support smallholders to improve their nutrition through a
set of three interventions: nutrition education, diversification of production, and off-farm
income generation for women2.
Figure 1.
Nutrition education
Extension advisory services can integrate nutrition education in their advisory services using
key messages that promote behaviour change. Such messages should:
2
The integration of this set of measures aims to address the determinants of food security outlined in
the UNICEF framework as access to food, availability, and utilisation. The UNICEF framework
highlights additional determinants of food security: food assimilation, care, and stability. Extension
advisory services alone have a limited mandate to intervene on these additional determinants. It is
therefore advisable to seek collaboration with other initiatives or institutions.
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be adapted to the characteristics of agro-ecologies and established dietary patterns
focus on diversification of diets (not only staples, but also food containing proteins
and vitamins) and on hygienic practices of food preparation and consumption
promote the consumption of food crops and animal products that are available at
farm level to ensure they are used not only as sources of cash but also as food
sources.
Diversification of production
Households that specialise in the production of only one or few cash crops suffer significant
losses in the event of crop failure or falling market prices. They are also reliant on local
markets to purchase food items to feed the family. If such markets are not well developed,
access to diversified and nutritious food is a challenge.
Extension advisory services can promote diversification of production to increase the range
of food available at household level through the cultivation of nutrient-rich food crops (e.g.
leafy vegetables, biofortified crops) and through animal-rearing practices (e.g. poultry,
snails, small livestock).
What principles drive diversification?

Promote the production of food that meets the dietary deficits of households.

Do not lose sight of the marketability of food products. Collect and disseminate
information on markets and quality requirements.

Consider the opportunity to grow food products in the off-season of the lead crops. The
additional income from selling food crops has an income-smoothing effect, especially in
regions where rainfed agriculture predominates.
What challenges are linked to production diversification?
Diversification requires investments of land, water, inputs, and working time. Smallholders
can face a dilemma in terms of resource allocation for plant- or animal-based food
production versus cash crop production or selling animal-sourced foods. The following
approaches help to tackle these challenges in a targeted manner:
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Compare gross margins of food crops and cash crops and help smallholders take an
informed decision.
Check that the planting and harvesting seasons of different crops do not overlap.
Rural households might face labour shortages.
If the burden of additional farming activities – including animal husbandry and linked
to diversification – is put on women, time available for care-giving will be reduced
(e.g. cooking, breastfeeding, care of the sick and elderly). It is important to make
communities and households aware of this risk and encourage more equitable
division of labour among household members.
Off-farm income generation for women
In many regions of the world, commercial agriculture is a male-dominated activity. Women
frequently lack the assets needed to engage in commercial farming, or are employed as
unpaid labour force on their household fields. Cultural and traditional patterns holding back
the economic empowerment of women take time to break.
At the same time, women invest a lot of their resources to improve the food security and
nutrition of their families. While cash crop production might not be possible for women,
opportunities for income generation can be found in off-farm activities. Women often
purchase, process, and trade in local food products. However, they may operate outdated
technologies, resulting in high labour intensity, low profits, poor quality, and low
marketability of their produce.
To improve women’s incomes, EAS can identify additional income sources and promote
technical and technology improvements that decrease costs and workloads while increasing
revenues.
Technical advice is one part of this; another part relates to the business models within which
women operate. Women may be entangled in exploitative business relations or lack
negotiation power on price setting. Extension advisory services can use cost–profit
calculations to identify profits and losses, and determinants of cost and revenues. Once
understood, such issues can be addressed by promoting innovative business models or
introducing quality improvements that give women an edge on the market.
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) promotes nutrition-sensitive
EAS with delivery methods tailored to the local context. In rice-farming systems, GIZ partners
with rice milers and their extension agents to improve the production and incomes of
farmers in outgrower schemes. In addition, GIZ mainstreams family nutrition education and
technical advice on crop diversification (sesame, soybean, vegetables) in the EAS. To
economically empower women, GIZ disseminates improved rice-parboiling techniques, and
links women processors to off-takers. In cacao-producing systems, GIZ combines EAS on
cacao production with extension messages related to diversification with nutritious crops
and animal-sourced products. All partner extension agents are trained in business skills and
nutrition education.
Capacities required
Core expertise in EAS rests in the production of traditional export crops and staples that are
in the spotlight of government promotion policies. Technical know-how on good practices
for the production of nutrient-rich crops may need mainstreaming, especially for crops that
are new to a region (e.g. orange-fleshed sweet potatoes) or where advisory services are
underdeveloped (e.g. animal husbandry and fisheries).
To address smallholders and their households not only as producers but also as consumers,
EAS need to be aware of factors that influence food consumption, such as culturally and
agro-ecologically determined eating preferences, cooking and hygienic practices, and interhousehold decision-making processes.
The scope of EAS needs to be broadened from technical to business advisory. Business skills
such as cost–revenue calculations need to be embedded in EAS and/or newly developed,
particularly for activities undertaken by women.
Facilitation / community animation and participatory methodologies of EAS should be
preserved and strengthened as they are more effective adult learning methods than topdown training and technology transfer.
Coordination and supervisory skills are critical to achieve delivery at large scale.
Coordination efforts will be required at managerial level to ensure the systematic inclusion
of nutrition-sensitive messages in the work of EAS and to guarantee that extension delivery
is timed according to relevant cropping seasons (e.g. for nutrition-rich crops) and the
availability of male and female household members.
Costs
The integration of a nutrition-sensitive approach in agricultural value chains entails the
following costs:
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Investment in expertise to develop advisory messages related to nutrition education,
business skills, and production techniques.
Equipping extension agents with quality training materials (posters, guidelines, visual
aids) to optimise learning by the target population.
Management support to encourage supervision and coaching.
Resources to ensure manpower, transportation, and allowances for extension agents.
Seed funds for demonstration plots or for demonstrating improved technologies for
off-farm activities.
Strengths and weaknesses
The major strengths and weaknesses of integrating nutrition-sensitive advisory services in
extension are shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths
Weaknesses
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Crop diversification through rotation, 
intercropping, and off-season production is
a recognised strategy to preserve soil
fertility and reduce pest incidence in cash
crop production. It does not conflict with
the mandate of EAS.
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Nutrition-sensitive extension messages are
available and can be adopted and adapted 
to context with relatively low investments.
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The approach fills a systemic weakness of
agricultural extension services through
building the capacity of extension agents
to integrate business and nutritional skills
in their services
The approach does not address causes
of malnutrition outside the household
level (e.g. high incidence of illness, or
lack of infrastructure to access clean
water) nor does it inherently focus on
better nutrition during the important
first 1,000 days of a child’s life.
EAS services are highly relevant for
emerging farmers and smallholders
with the potential to produce at
commercial level. Their services are not
sufficient to address the needs of
resource-poor
(e.g.
landless)
households or subsistence producers,
who are often the most affected by
food insecurity.
Best-fit considerations
The extent to which public- and private sector-led EAS can integrate nutrition-sensitive
measures in their work depends on their mandate; the motivation to change what services
are provided (what reason does the EAS have to provide nutrition-sensitive advice?); and the
means (operational funds, staff and management capabilities, training, job aids).
Type
extension
advisory
services
Public
of Opportunity
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Private
Challenge
Large presence in rural areas
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Existing
relations
to 
smallholders
and
broad
outreach
Often a mandate to improve
nutrition
and
women’s
empowerment

More resources available

Access
to
communication
technologies

information,
and other 
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Resource constraints
Management inefficiencies
Companies need to be convinced
of return on investment
Intervention
limited
outgrowers and focused
specific crops
to
on
Didactic shortcomings
In any case, EAS must consider that integrating of nutrition-sensitive measures in their
services will put additional strain on staff time and resources. Conflicts in staff deployment
between technical advisory and nutrition-sensitive measures are to be avoided.
The Farmer Business School (FBS) of GIZ (see References) is an example of a cost-effective,
nutrition-sensitive EAS. FBS covers the production practices of a cash crop and at least two
options for diversification with crops or animal products that have economic and nutritional
value. FBS includes sensitisation on food needs (such as the importance of a child’s first
1,000 days), financial management, identification of nutritious foods in markets, and better
postharvest methods. Over 334,000 cocoa smallholders (27% of whom are women) have
graduated from FBS in five African countries. Over 38,000 rice producers (of whom 40% are
women) have been reached in four African countries. In the experience of GIZ, the cost of
delivering FBS ranges from €8–10 per beneficiary. The majority of trained smallholders
report that they have improved nutrition and could reduce expenditure for healthcare.
Evidence of impacts, sustainability, and scalability
Impacts
Integrating a nutrition-sensitive approach within agricultural extension is quite a recent
endeavour, but given the high priority that the global development agenda places on a
multisector strategy to improve nutrition, it is on the rise. Preliminary evidence indicates
that the largest impact of nutrition-sensitive EAS is in improving agricultural productivity,
food production, and income generation from agriculture. This is only partially contributing
to improving the nutrition of rural households. Progress towards this goal depends on the
extent to which attention to gender and nutrition education are integrated into EAS.
Sustainability
Sustainability of nutrition-sensitive messages in public-sector EAS requires a clear
institutional mandate and sustained availability of resources. Despite some progress, this is
not always a given. Private-sector EAS are dependent on the business decision of the
company to which they are affiliated. Changes in commercial strategy that alter the mandate
of an EAS to provide nutrition messages cannot be excluded.
Scalability
Once the initial investment in capacity building and know-how accumulation has been made,
the scalability of such nutrition-sensitive approaches is high, as relevant messages can be
mainstreamed in the daily work of the EAS.
Further reading
de Brauw, A., Gelli, A. and Allen, S. 2015. Identifying opportunities for nutrition-sensitive
value-chain interventions. IFPRI Research Brief 21. Washington, DC: International Food Policy
Research Institute. Available at: www.ifpri.org/publication/identifying-opportunitiesnutrition-sensitive-value-chain-interventions
GIZ. 2015. Experiences with the Farmer Business School (FBS) approach in Africa. Sector
Network Rural Development Africa. Eschborn, Germany: Working Group Agribusiness and
Food Security, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit. Available at:
http://ssab.caadp.net/en/materials/docs/GIZ_Studie%20SNRD_EN_Webversion_150914.pdf
Kurz, K. 2013. Nutrition-sensitive interventions and agriculture value chains: Preliminary
lessons from Feed the Future implementation in four countries. Background paper for the
FAO–WHO Second International Nutrition Conference (ICN-2). Available at:
www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/agn/pdf/Kurz-DAI__FAO_nutritionsensitive_Nov2013_REVISED.pdf
Training materials
FAO Zimbabwe. 2015. Healthy harvest. A training manual for community workers in growing,
preparing and processing nutritious food. Food and Nutrition Council of Zimbabwe, Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Available
at: http://motherchildnutrition.org/healthy-nutrition/pdf/mcn-healthy-harvest.pdf
GIZ Farmer Business School (FBS): http://ssab.caadp.net/en/materials
GIZ Family nutrition training module and GIZ Parboiling training module: http://cariproject.org/downloads/reportstraining-material
Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Uganda, 2015. Food and nutrition
handbook for extension workers (not yet available online).
Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, Malawi. 2015. Nutrition
handbook for farmer field schools. Lilongwe: Department of Agricultural Extension Services,
Nutrition
Unit.
Available
at:
www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/nutrition/docs/education/resources/by_country/Mala
wi/FFS_Nutrition_Handbook.pdf